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Hey guys. I think that since the start of the year we’re seeing McLaren and Red Bull switch places in terms of tyre usage. Red Bull used to be hard on its tires, instantly switching them on for quali. But now it seems that McLaren have that honor, and their last few cold races have helped them mask it; or if you choose to see it the other way around, it switched their tyres on well for the races. I think given the cold conditions of the last few races it was perfect for them.

Ferrari have been very hard-pressed to take temperature into their tyres and that pet characteristic seemed to bother them in Hungary as well as they were struggling to get tyre temps. But what about Silverstone? It was rather cold, and I was confused that the Ferrari was faster in the cold than the Red Bulls were, especially considering Red Bull's alleged downforce advantage. Could it be possible that Ferrari's operating window has moved to cooler temps, but the semi-dampness in Hungary has nullified that somehow? I don't know, honestly.

What do you folks think? I would love some expert advice on the matter.

Didn't we just have a thread about this? My reply will be the same as it was there... show some lap data conclusively showing these changes in performance degradation, and we can discuss from there.

We talked about tyre life vs cars in the F150 thread, yes. But this is more about the cars and the way they heat the tyres.

Don't forget that hot isn't necessarily good (or best).

Yes I know. But getting good heat is good in cold conditions, and when the track conditions are hot it's good to not get good heat into them

raymondu999 wrote:Hey guys. I think that since the start of the year we’re seeing McLaren and Red Bull switch places in terms of tyre usage. Red Bull used to be hard on its tires, instantly switching them on for quali. But now it seems that McLaren have that honor, and their last few cold races have helped them mask it; or if you choose to see it the other way around, it switched their tyres on well for the races. I think given the cold conditions of the last few races it was perfect for them.

Ferrari have been very hard-pressed to take temperature into their tyres and that pet characteristic seemed to bother them in Hungary as well as they were struggling to get tyre temps. But what about Silverstone? It was rather cold, and I was confused that the Ferrari was faster in the cold than the Red Bulls were, especially considering Red Bull's alleged downforce advantage. Could it be possible that Ferrari's operating window has moved to cooler temps, but the semi-dampness in Hungary has nullified that somehow? I don't know, honestly.

What do you folks think? I would love some expert advice on the matter.

I would say the huge energy going through the tires in Silverstone's high speed corners mitigated Ferrari's cold weather problems.

Slight issue with that. Barcelona is a higher energy track than Silverstone and it was hotter at Barcelona. Alonso went from P4 to lapped.

Not simple is it?

Ben

Yes but in Barcelona a lot of it was attributable to the Ferrari's hideous hard tyre use. Not to mention that between Silverstone and Barcelona they had rafts of upgrades onto the car. Hence you can't really compare like for like in those two

raymondu999 wrote:Yes but in Barcelona a lot of it was attributable to the Ferrari's hideous hard tyre use.

Prove it. No handwaving.